Knox County Through The Eastern Eye

Originally called Sea Street, Tillson Avenue stretches east to the many wharfs on Crockett’s Point, which reaches into Owl’s Head Bay. General Davis Tillson built a large granite wharf at the end of Sea Street in 1881, and the name of the street was changed to Tillson Avenue around 1914.

This photograph looks east down Tillson Avenue from near Main Street. The first building on the left is Perry’s Coffee House, a small restaurant. Next to it stands St. Clair and Allen Confectionery, a wholesale and retail company that was famous for its penny candy, nickel bars, and homemade ribbon candy, peanut brittle, and popcorn cakes.

The third building on the left is the John Bird Block, built in 1898 for the John Bird Company, manufacturers of the Three Crow brand of spices. Beyond the Bird Block and on the right, houses, businesses, and tenements contributed to the bustling atmosphere of Crockett’s Point.

In the 1930s and 1940s the boulevard in the middle of Tillson Avenue contained a granite horse trough with a fountain that was cut and shipped from Vinalhaven.